Configuring Zowe CLI environment variables

Configure Zowe CLI using environment variables to define directories, log levels, daemon mode properties, and more.

Required roles: Security administrator, DevOps architect

By default, Zowe CLI configuration is stored on your computer in the C:\Users\user01\.zowe directory. The directory includes log files, profile information, and installed Zowe CLI plug-ins. When troubleshooting, refer to the logs in the imperative and zowe folders.

note

For information on how to define Zowe CLI environment variables to execute commands more efficiently, see Using environment variables.

Setting the Zowe CLI home directory

You can set the location on your computer where Zowe CLI creates the .zowe directory, which contains log files, profiles, and plug-ins for the product.

Environment variable	Description	Values	Default
ZOWE_CLI_HOME	Zowe CLI home directory location	Any valid path on your computer	Your computer default home directory

Setting a shared plug-in directory

You can set the location of a shared directory to manage Zowe CLI plug-ins for multiple users.

A project administrator can pre-install, and update, a Zowe CLI plug-in stored in the shared directory to make the same version of that plug-in available to all users. This avoids managing separate copies of a plug-in across a development team.

The plug-in directory must be defined before any Zowe CLI plug-ins are installed.

Important

Any plug-in installed before specifying the environment variable cannot be managed with Zowe CLI. To resolve this, re-install the plug-in after the environment variable is set.

Environment variable	Description	Values	Default
ZOWE_CLI_PLUGINS_DIR	Zowe CLI plug-in directory location	Any valid path on your computer	Plug-ins folder inside the Zowe CLI home

Setting CLI log levels

You can set the log level to adjust the level of detail that is written to log files.

warning

Setting the log level to TRACE or ALL might result in sensitive data being logged. For example, command line arguments are logged when TRACE is set.

Environment variable	Description	Values	Default
ZOWE_APP_LOG_LEVEL	Zowe CLI logging level	Log4JS log levels (OFF, TRACE, DEBUG, INFO, WARN, ERROR, FATAL)	WARN
ZOWE_IMPERATIVE_LOG_LEVEL	Imperative CLI Framework logging level	Log4JS log levels (OFF, TRACE, DEBUG, INFO, WARN, ERROR, FATAL)	WARN

Setting CLI daemon mode properties

By default, the CLI daemon mode binary creates or reuses a file in the user's home directory each time a Zowe CLI command runs. In some cases, this behavior might be undesirable. For example, when the home directory resides on a network drive and has poor file performance.

To change the location that the daemon uses, set the environment variables that are described in the following table.

Platform	Environment variable	Description	Values	Default
All	ZOWE_DAEMON_DIR	Lets you override the complete path to the directory that will hold daemon files related to this user. The directory can contain the following files: daemon.lock daemon.sock daemon_pid.json	Any valid path on your computer	<your_home_dir>/.zowe/daemon Examples: Windows: %HOMEPATH%\.zowe\daemon Linux: $HOME/.zowe/daemon
Windows (only)	ZOWE_DAEMON_PIPE	Lets you override the last two segments of the name of the communication pipe between the daemon executable (.exe) and the daemon.	Any valid path on your computer	\\.\pipe\%USERNAME%\ZoweDaemon

Showing secure values

See the secure credentials used by a command to help troubleshoot a configuration problem.

Use the --show-inputs-only option in a Zowe CLI command to view the property values used by the command. When the ZOWE_SHOW_SECURE_ARGS is set to true, the response also includes the secure values used and defined in the user's client configuration.

Environment variable	Description	Values	Default
ZOWE_SHOW_SECURE_ARGS	Displays secure property values used by a Zowe CLI command	TRUE, FALSE	FALSE

Using Zowe CLI with a proxy

If your network configuration requires communication with the mainframe to be performed through a proxy server, set environment variables to route Zowe CLI traffic through an HTTP/HTTPS proxy.

Environment Variable	Description	Example Value
HTTPS_PROXY, https_proxy	Use an https proxy to route communication to the mainframe when your proxy server supports https.	If authentication required: https://[user]:[password]@[address]:[port] If authentication not required: https://[address]:[port]
HTTP_PROXY, http_proxy	Use an http proxy to route communication to the mainframe when your proxy server does not support https.	If authentication required: http://[user]:[password]@[address]:[port] If authentication not required: http://[address]:[port]
NO_PROXY	Set a list of host addresses (separated by commas) to connect to the specified hosts without going through a proxy.	https://[address_1],https://[address_2], http://[address_1],http://[address_2], *.address_1,*.address_2